I'm sure this is new to nobody, but I wanted to add some official flavor to how badly Verizon screws GPS on the Palm Pre Plus.

I spent 4 months (after buying the phone full retail) going back and forth between Verizon tech support and Palm support over the issue that I could not get any kind of reliable GPS signal. I exchanged devices 4 times. Still nothing. Updated software repeatedly, still nothing.

Finally, after all this back and forth, and testing, and new devices, and new software, blah blah... a senior (level 4) palm engineer wrote me and admitted: "Verizon blocks any applications from accessing the full GPS signal except their for-pay VZ Navigator app."

This is not new news on Verizon, they've pulled this crap before. But it's further proof they haven't corrected their ways, and that they're screwing customers (even those who pay $700 for a phone) into paying $10/mo to use a fundamental phone feature like GPS.

It's absolutely ridiculous. It should be illegal. I wish someone would file a class-action lawsuit against Verizon for unfair business practices around this GPS issue.

They are now attempting to send me refurbished Pre 2's to replace my non-GPS Pre Plus (that had been replaced 4 times to try and correct) I too, had to have Palm defend themselves with a tier 3 support guy on my line when I called Verizon. They still owe me over a year and a half of two lines of flase service and a "new" phone with GPS, but at least they are making a move to admitting the Pre Plus does not have the GPS capabilities they sold it as. Though they are far from admitting they are the ones causing the issue.